MiFID II

What impact will research unbundling under MiFID II (the European regulatory framework to take force from January 2018) have on your approach to sourcing high quality investment research and strategy?

MiFID II will undoubtedly have a far-reaching influence on the European investment community and with banks’ sales teams being obliged to charge for their previously freely offered research, research expenditure will need to be carefully considered and justified as adding worthwhile value, leading to increasingly discerning choices over research providers.

Some Investment Funds have decided not to pass on the cost of broker research to clients, though what is valuable to a client will remain uncertain, and this may not be in the spirit of MiFID II, which aims for transparency of costs. MiFID will include the introduction of research payment accounts (RPA) and additional transparency requirements, which will make it less cost efficient for brokers to provide research.

With the requirement for any banks or funds that provide research to be fully transparent over costs, and many deciding to absorb the expense themselves, focus will sharpen to provide relevant research, rather than endless pages of self-promoting prose.

Drawing on deep and extensive global investment market experience, product knowledge and independent fundamental economic research, Macro Thoughts is commended for its unique prospective which consistently provides exceptional forecasting and trade strategies.

Macro Thoughts has an acknowledged aptitude for anticipating global geopolitical and economic events and the expertise with which to provide successful hedging solutions, as demonstrated by strategies including Sterling Puts pre-Brexit, Volatility buying before the 1,000 point sell off of the Dow and EurChf options prior to the SNB abandoning the peg – indeed, the best research can be effectively self-funding.

With the requisite for research to be both insightful, useful and warranted as good value, Macro Thoughts, with its proven track record of providing hedging and profitable strategies with which to leverage its perceptive analysis and forecasting, can be your impartial and independent partner in successfully recognising and optimising market opportunities.